Grand Theft Auto V – Preview

Ever since it was announced in late 2011 amidst the overblown BF3 and COD: MW3 spat (that made it all look like a nonsensical playground fight), the buzz around Rockstar’s next offering hasn’t really come close to subsiding. And with the September 17th release date (as it stands) only getting closer that is unlikely to change anytime soon.

The new character trailers have now gone live with Michael’s shades of Tony Soprano I’m hooked until it hits shelves. Next to this there were also the reveal trailers for the other two main characters; Franklin and Trevor.

The key word thus far with GTA V seems to be ‘heist’, and the narrative inter-woven between the three playable characters follows them as they seek to pull off them off. Of course this is nothing new, much of GTA IV led up to the huge bank robbery towards the very end. Here however the five or so bank robberies are spaced throughout many missions and leave much more to the players hands.

What that quite means I’m not sure, but this is Rockstar so rest assured it will no doubt be smashing. According to them, “Heists in GTA V begin with a planning session that sees our three stars gathering together in a room to work out the logistics. Players will have a range of options to work with: points of entry, equipment requirements, assigned roles, and, for the bigger jobs, hired hands.”

If life has taught me anything it is that I am a terrible decision maker so this is a whole new challenge being thrown at me. On top of this there is also muscle to hire for each job, at a price of course and obviously each talent you chose to help you out will have their own pros and cons.

Evidence of one of the heists can be seen prominently in Michael’s trailer below:

Very Tony Soprano right? The man who has it all, but is still very miserable with his dysfunctional family and addiction to chaos. He even has a therapist, although admittedly not a female one. Michael is also a film obsessive much like Tony Soprano. His obsession even leaks through into his missions, note the boiler suits and hockey mask. Michael Mann’s ‘Heat’ anyone?

Elsewhere, well Trevor is clearly a nutter, no two ways about that, and seems to be in his pants a fair bit (Walter White?) and looks to even be in a meth lab at one point in his trailer. See below:

Lastly we have Franklin, and conceivably the best thing about him is he owns a dog called Chop, who looks like he’s up for a fight. Besides this, his story looks rather frantic and adrenaline charged, and it has to be said, very similar to San Andreas.

GTA V has evidently took note from Rockstar’s latest releases, ‘Red Dead Redemption’ brought us animals, and ‘Max Payne 3’ brought us slow-mo gun fights which look to be re-appearing in Los Santos (let’s hope not so much though). It’s also going to be beyond huge and will include a host of real life buildings from California. I’ve already spotted Century City’s Fox Plaza used as the Nakatomi building in the first Die Hard.

Maybe you should start booking that time off work now to avoid disappointment?
For more info visit www.rockstargames.com/V